The Archives of Anthropos
Description The Archives of Anthropos is a series of six Christian fantasy books, written by John White, and published from 1978—2001. The series are allegorical Christian fantasies, very much in the style of C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. In all six books, children from Earth are magically transported to another world, called Anthropos, where the Christ-like figure, Gaal, calls upon them to save the world from a variety of dangers. Not all the books were published in chronological order; the first two books to be published, The Tower of Geburah and The Iron Sceptre, are books number three and four, chronologically. They both feature the same main characters, Wesley, Lisa and Kurt. White then wrote two prequels to the original books, The Sword Bearer and Gaal the Conqueror, which feature Wesley, Lisa and Kurt's Uncle John, as a child. Book five, both in published and chronological order, was Quest for the King. It featured the same three children once again, but this time the children time-travelled in Anthropos, to in between book one and two. Finally, the sixth book, The Dark Lord's Demise, completed the series. The similarity to the Narnia books is not incidental. John White wrote in the appendix of Quest for the King: "My own children ganged up on me and came with the request that since I wrote books for adults, I could write them for children too. (Of course their assumption was incorrect!) "We won't bug you any more," they said, "if only you'll write a book for us. But it has to be just like Narnia!" So, intrigued, I decided I'd have a crack at it ... I wrote, and then read them my opening chapter of what eventually turned into The Tower of Geburah." Reader's Reviews 1 The best thing about The Archives of Anthropos is also its worst problem. Comparisons to C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia are bound to be made. The Anthropos books are just too similar not to see that the author drew obvious inspiration from Lewis' fantasies. And, in some ways, this is good. It's an easy sell for anybody who has enjoyed the Narnia books, with these books delivering exactly the same sort of fantasy adventure, as children from our world have to rescue a completely different country from a terrible danger. It's good, clean fun, and for readers who need more Narnia, it's perfect. Unfortunately, having such an obvious connection to Narnia means Anthropos tends to suffer in comparisons. To put it bluntly, John White's books just aren't as good as C. S. Lewis' masterpieces. That's not to say they are particularly bad—they just pale in comparison to the truly wonderful Narnia books. The quality of writing isn't as good, the characters are not as well drawn, and the plots aren't as engrossing. The Archives of Anthropos will be read, and enjoyed, by most readers who liked Lewis' seven books. But, slightly inevitably, they will be written off by most children as "not as good as Narnia." 2 Please add your review here. Books in the series The books, in order of publication, are: # The Tower of Geburah (1978) # The Iron Sceptre (1981) # The Sword Bearer (1986) # Gaal the Conqueror (1989) # Quest for the King (1995) # The Dark Lord's Demise (2001) The books, in chronological order, are: # The Sword Bearer (1986) # Gaal the Conqueror (1989) # The Tower of Geburah (1978) # The Iron Sceptre (1981) # Quest for the King (1995) # The Dark Lord's Demise (2001) Parental Guidance *Reading Age: 10+ *Read Aloud Age: 9+ Some violence, although not overly descriptive. There is a fair bit of magic. Also, there are many Christian allegories, more obviously than the Narnia books. If you like this you might like *''The Chronicles of Narnia'' by C. S. Lewis are very similar. *''The Lord of the Rings'' by J. R. R. Tolkien for older readers. Navigational links Category:Adventure Category:Fantasy Category:Magic Category:Battles Category:Fighting Category:Archives of Anthropos Category:Allegory Category:Christian Fiction Category:Age 10 Category:Age 11 Category:Age 12 Category:Age 13 Category:Age 14 Category:1978 Category:2001